A primary concern for building professionals such as executives, managers, and operators, is implementing systems for building energy consumption control and monitoring. While heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) hardware and related energy consumption comprise a significant portion of building operating expenses, building professionals have no affordable yet reliable way to accurately determine whether these costs are justified. Building executives, for example, are constantly faced with the decision of whether to upgrade to the latest hardware. Vendors of these systems may make grandiose promises regarding improved performance but, without a reliable means of determining current inefficiencies or verifying results, these statements often lack adequate context and cannot be accurately verified. Verification of such promises and actual building performance would be considerably simplified by having independently gathered specific data regarding current inefficiencies, as well as tracking data and performance improvement data. Furthermore, a system to more closely monitor HVAC unit performance, quickly identify problems, and suggest solutions would help building managers and operators meet their long and short term goals, as well as help control their budgets.
While there are environment control systems aimed at maximizing performance and minimizing energy consumption, many current HVAC systems lack the capability to precisely measure critical variables for analysis. Constantly changing factors, both within building systems and external to them make determining base line comparisons exceedingly difficult. Added to this difficulty is the fact that most HVAC systems do not have the granular control needed to implement improvements, even when inefficiencies are identified. Due to these constraints, the possibilities for accurate and affordable HVAC monitoring and control procedures remain largely unexplored.